"We don’t use the word desperate around here," Antonio Gates was saying on Monday. "That's not something we do."

Maybe they should start.

The Chargers (5-7) have lost four of their last five games, and seem headed to their fourth straight winter without a playoff berth.

Now as they prepare for Sunday's game against the Giants, who are 3.5-point underdogs on betting lines, Gates will be among those probing the team's mindset.

"The key for us is to just try to play with passion and energy, and try to get these young players to understand the significance of this game," he said.

Rare turnovers

Gates is coming off one of the more disappointing games of his career, but one that may owe more to an opponent's opportunism than glaring lapses on his part. The Bengals extracted two turnovers from him in their 17-10 victory Sunday, takeaways that stopped the Chargers inside Cincinnati's 30.

"I was a big part of what happened yesterday. That was just so uncharacteristic of the standard I set for myself and the standard I set for this team," he said.

As the U-T's Kevin Acee noted, Gates had gone five years without losing a fumble. Then he lost one Week 2 at Philadelphia.

Gates would rather another five years had passed between turnovers.

"When it's all said and done, unfortunately, if you play this game long enough, you have those kind of games that I had (Sunday)," he said. "It's something I definitely will learn from."

Against the Eagles, he dangled the ball and a defensive back swatted it loose from behind.

"I had a good grip on the ball (versus the Bengals),'' he said.

The fumble that stopped the Chargers at Cincinnati's 18 came after Gates caught a pass, turned and lunged forward to the ground -- but into the strike area of fast-closing safety Reggie Nelson, a scud missile zooming inches above the turf.

"I thought I was down," he said, "but he made a good play." (A replay judge upheld the call that Gates had fumbled.)

In the third quarter, when Gates caught a pass over the middle, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick jumped on his back and yanked the ball away for an interception at Cincinnati's 25.

"My momentum was carrying me back," Gates said, "and Kirkpatrick was right there. He had more momentum, and he was able to use his strength."

Thieving mentality

Gates praised the Bengals for attacking the ball.

He deemed Cincinnati's hunger for turnovers exceptional, such as when a few Bengals defenders opted not to touch Ladarius Green until he got up after catching a pass.

"Guys were standing around him, wanting him to get up and run, so they can take a crack at the ball," he said. "Then they got me."

Talking about Bengals defenders during the game, Gates told a teammate: They are going strictly for the ball.

"It’s a phenomenal mentality," he said Monday, "because taking the ball, possession changes – that’s huge in this league. They believe in what they’re doing. They are super aware of what they're doing."